The Dangers of the Daemon
by ODST 357
Summary: A guardsman is captured by Dark Eldar, who intend to use him as a human sacrifice to Slaanesh, one of the four Chaos gods. When the Ordo Malleus gets wind of this, they send a squad of Grey Knights to disrupt the ritual and kill all of those involved.


Private Nick Carver unslung his lasgun from his shoulder, laying it on the snowy earth. He sighed, removing his helmet, and leaned against a tree. His regiment, the 17th Cadian, was setting up their camp for the night, and Nick's squad had been given a ten minute break before they had to begin stringing razorwire along the perimeter. They had spent the entire day fighting foul Eldar pirates, and he was going to take advantage of this little bit of respite. He leaned his head against the tree, and closed his eyes, knowing his sergeant would wake him up when he was needed.

A few minutes later, he felt something being shoved into his mouth, and his eyes snapped open. He reached his hands up to remove it and they were grabbed by an unseen being, and quickly bound. He groaned in protest, but his captor just laughed. They dragged him away from the tree, across the frozen ground, and Nick got a good look at the people who were kidnapping him. They were wearing ornate, spiky helmets, and their light armor was jet black; a ridiculous choice for an arctic environment, but then, these beings didn't need camouflage. People ran from them willingly. Nick gasped as he realized he had been taken prisoner by Dark Eldar slavers! He began screaming in earnest now, but whatever it was that they had stuck in his mouth blocked virtually all sound from escaping. One of the Eldar reached over and slapped him, the alien's spiked gloves shredding his cheek. Bleeding profusely, Nick stopped making noise, not wanting to be sliced again. He shivered internally when he remembered the horror stories his squadmates told about what the Dark Eldar did to their prisoners.

He was dragged through the dense forest near the Cadian camp, and after about twenty minutes, the two aliens finally shoved him into a clearing. Nick, who was still bound and gagged, rolled onto his back, and cocked his head at his captors. A large stone slab stood in the middle of the clearing, and it was stained a rusty red. The dark eldar removed his gag and began the process of stringing him up to the slab. Once he was sufficiently tied to the stone, they built a fire nearby, and sat around, telling stories, apparently waiting for something.

* * *

"General, we have reports that one of your men has been captured by the Eldar." Inquisitor Garrison strode into the room, pointing his daemonhammer threateningly at General Vernon. The obsidian weapon crackled with barely contained energy, begging to be released. 

"Yes, I am aware of that Inquisitor. His platoon seems to be functioning just fine without him thought, so I have delayed the requisitioning of a replacement until this battle has come to pass."

"Shut up for a minute and listen you idiot!" Garrison snapped. "The Eldar are preparing some sort of arcane ritual, involving human sacrifice and a massive orgy. That type of ritual suggests that Slaanesh is involved." Some of the younger members of the general's staff recoiled at Garrison's casual use of the Dark Prince's name. "I'm not at liberty to give you the specifics, but rest assured, that your soldier is an essential cog in their plans. One of my Grey Knights squads are inbound on their position, to rescue him and purge the area of all enemy, daemon or otherwise."

"Inquisitor, that is hardly necessary. Please, allow one of my Stormtrooper squads to handle it." Vernon said.

"My god, it really boggles the mind as to how you ever became an officer, much less a general! You fool, only the Grey Knights are guaranteed not to take on look at that ritual of excess and get right down on the ground and get it on alongside those xenos scum!"

"What makes you so sure?" Vernon asked skeptically.

"Well, for starters, they have no _reproductive organs!!!_" That caused everyone in the room to reel. "Yeah, you idiots. They were removed, because what good is a giant warrior dosed up on testosterone when he uses said testosterone to get laid as often as possible, instead of doing what he was fucking grown to do? Serve the Emperor? Ringing any bells?"

"But their voices are so deep…" a junior staffer muttered to himself

Garrison wheeled around to face him. "What was that?"

A look somewhere between confusion and sheer, unending terror crossed the young man's face. "I said-"

"Yeah, I heard what you said." Garrison muttered, drawing his bolt pistol. He aimed it at the soldier's face, which was now wearing a look of horror. Garrison flicked the safety off with his thumb, and fired a bolt in the man's head, spraying the console he was sitting at with bits of skull and brains.

"General, I trust I have your full cooperation in this?" he breathed.

"Yeah-uh yes sir!" Vernon stuttered, drawing himself up to a salute.

"Good, now, I shall go to the airfield and await the Grey Knights. You are to tighten your perimeter security immediately."

"Very good sir."

Garrison walked out of the room, his crimson cloak swishing back and forth.

Vernon turned to one of the Kasrkin standing in the corner of the command center. "Clean that up!" he yelled, snapping his fingers as he tried to regain a shred of his authority. The armored soldier nodded and bent to retrieve the body of the dead staffer.

* * *

Inquisitor Garrison watched as the thunderhawk containing the Grey Knight squad he had requisitioned set down softly on the hastily established landing pad. The rear ramp dropped with a clang, and 10 men in dull silver power armor ran out, each carrying long Nemisis Force Halberds, and armed with wrist mounted stormbolters. Garrison strode up to the squad, and said, 

"Who is the Justicar here?"

A marine who's halberd glowed with a bright blue light looked up, and nodded.

"I am sir. Justicar Umbar at your command sir."

"Very good. Now, I assume you have been briefed on the problem at hand?"

"Yes sir. A guardsman has been captured, and he is to be used by the Eldar as part of some foul ritual to Slaanesh. We're supposed to crash their party." Garrison was sure that if he could see the man's face right now, he would be sporting a large grin.

"Yes, you've got it right Justicar. Now, what is the layout of your squad?"

"Eight men, including myself, with stormbolters and Nemisis Force Weapons and two men with psycannon. More than enough to take down some pansy Eldar and a few daemons."

Garrison nodded. "Your kit choices are excellent. Good luck, and Emperor be with you."

Umbar nodded. "You too sir. Squad! Move out!"

* * *

Umbar led his men through the forest, and kept an eye on the auspex for any signs of life. This mission could get hairy if they showed up too late, but Umbar wasn't worried. Grey Knights were the best of the best, more elite even than Space Marines, and if anyone could pull this off, it was them. After ten minutes of hacking through the forest with their halberds, they began to see a strange purple glow emanating from a clearing up ahead. Umbar immediately recognized it as a daemonic summoning, and ordered his squad to triple time it to the source of the light. They ran through the forest, and emerged into clearing with their guns trained dead ahead. What they saw though, made Umbar hesitate to give the order to fire.

There was a bloody stone slab, with the desecrated body of the guardsman hanging from rusty chains. His guts were likewise hanging from a large gash in his torso, like great bloody snakes. An Eldar priest stood above him with a crimson stained knife, muttering daemonic incantations and quivering like a thing possessed, which, Umber reminded himself, he probably was. There was a squad of Eldar warriors dressed entirely in black, carrying sinister looking weapons that were now trained on Umbar and his squad. But the thing that made him pause were the dozens of Eldar that were on the ground, all locked in one way or another in disgusting and heretical sexual acts. When Umbar could finally clear his head, the first words out of his mouth were,

"It's a damn orgy! Squad, exterminate with extreme prejudice!!!" They raised their guns as one, and began fired their holy rounds into the thick mass of writhing skin. The aliens screamed as the explosive bolts hit them and caused them to pop like blisters. The Eldar warriors returned fire with their splinter rifles, but the foreign rounds just bounced off of the holy Aegis suits that encased the Knights. Raising his Halberd, Umbar roared a mighty, "For the Emperor!!!" and charged into the line of warriors. His power infused halberd cut through their armor like a hot knife through butter, and his warriors quickly followed suit. As the dying screams of the aliens quieted, Umbar surveyed the sacrificial site, and opened a vox link to Garrison.

"My Lord, this is Justicar Umbar. It is done. There are no survivors."


End file.
